Safe And Sound
by WesleighRose6589
Summary: Peeta swore from the very first hour of the Hunger Games that he would always protect Katniss. This story follows their journey through the Hunger Games. In this story, the Hunger Games lasts for a year, just so I could include the things I wanted to include. Rated M for language, kind of explicit sex scenes.
1. Angels

Safe and Sound

Katniss P.O.V.

I could feel someone beside me, touching my face. They looked like an angel through my bleary eyes, haloed in a white glow. Then my face was wet and I tasted salt as I inhaled. Someone was…sobbing? Angels don't sob, I thought to myself. I vainly reached my arm out to touch the divine creature. I had to kill whatever was making it cry. _Kill. Kill. Kill. _The word that had echoed through my mind since the first tribute was killed 2 days ago, the event that made this so real. The word that made my tongue burn and made my stomach churn when I thought of Peeta being killed. Could he be my angel? I heard more sobbing. "I think… she's… gone…" A voice said. A familiar voice. Peeta's voice. Was I dead? That couldn't be. I could taste and hear. I tried to tell him I was ok, that he didn't lose me. I could see his face more clearly now. He was crumpled in a heap, head buried in his lap. He was wet with blood, I didn't know if it was mine or his. I looked down at my body. I could see blood and that someone had put makeshift stitches in my chest. I tried to speak, "Peeta.." I reached for his hand. He stopped sobbing and looked at me. "Katniss?" He scrambled closer to me to hug me. I had never seen his green eyes so sad. His beautiful face so distraught. He clung to me, like my blood soaked shirt. "I thought.. you were gone." He began to cry this time. Hysterically. "I thought I'd never see you again. I can't lose you.. Your all I have." I had never realized how much he loved me. He had always watched me from afar from the bakery, and complimented my game when I returned from hunting, but that never signaled love to me.

Peeta P.O.V.

I looked down at her in my arms. So small and helpless. Covered in blood. The stitches I threw together had held the stab wound closed long enough to stop the bleeding. I shouldn't have turned my back. If I wouldn't have gone after those berries, she wouldn't be in the pain she's in. She would be safe and sound in the cave with me. I told her I'd protect her and that we'd both make it through this game without killing anyone. So far, I'd killed 3 people. Two who were stabbing Katniss and one who tried to kill both of us while I tended to her wounds. I'd broken all my promises. I loved her so much, it hurt. I couldn't decide whether to stay by her side or to go kill all the potential harm to her. She was perfect to me. You don't slaughter a perfectly perfect thing. You protect it. You cherish it. Which is why we hid out in the cave for most of the games. I couldn't risk her being hurt. I couldn't watch it again. I couldn't stand her blood on my hands, literally. Soaking my pants, my shirt, my face. Like she needed me to protect her. I hadn't done a good job of it so far. She'd done better at protecting herself. But still, I couldn't leave her. She couldn't die. She was Katniss. And it scared the hell out of me when I saw her with a knife sticking out of her ribcage. She had multiple stab wounds all over her precious body. My body. She was my Katniss. Somebody had touched MY Katniss. Stabbed her. Hurt her. Almost damn near killed her. I killed them. But it wasn't good enough. I needed to revive them and kill them again. Over and over until they experienced the pain that she felt. The pain that I felt as I watched her gasp for breath, blood gurgling out of the wounds and running down her precious chin.

Nobody was ever going to hurt her again. Ever.


	2. Saving Me

Katniss P.O.V.

I was so glad that Peeta didn't abandon my dead (or so he thought) body in the middle of the forest. I don't think he would ever do that. I don't think he could. "Can you walk?" He wrapped an arm, gently, around my waist. I grimaced as I tried not to cry out from the stabbing pain in my chest. "Yes." I managed to mutter through clenched teeth. "The cave's only a few feet away, do I need to carry you?" Oh Peeta. So sweet. But I, Katniss Everdeen, had never been one for admitting when I needed help. "I'll manage." I said, putting most of my weight on him. I limped alongside him in short strides. I hoped I wasn't weighing him down.

Peeta P.O.V.

I could smell the blood on her. She was clinging to me, putting most of her weight on me. Not that she was heavy, she had to weigh less than 100 pounds, but I probably should have just carried her anyways. But I know her. I know that she likes to be independent and I just wanted to lessen the chance of her physically resisting me. She needed rest. I only hoped I could get her to do so and to let me take care of her. I had already set up a fresh bed of leaves and washed off the linen blankets our sponsors had sent us a while ago, right before I left for food. There was also fresh water, already in our metal bottles and fresh berries and squirrel meat to be cooked for dinner later. Oddly enough, Katniss was our hunter and I was our protector, watching her back while she hunted food. That's what the crowd loved about us. I didn't try to kill her. We had fallen in love. They sent us numerous supplies and kept us in there prayers. We were a crowd pleaser. We announced our couple-dom at the first interview before we were released. Haymitch said it would behoove us and it did. I had a problem though. I really loved this girl. I only could hope she loved me back.

Katniss P.O.V.

It seemed like hours before we reached the cave. Peeta gingerly lowered me down and then came down himself. He pulled our leaf covering over the entrance and laid me on our bed. "Can I clean you Katniss? I didn't have supplies while you were asleep." He asked, shyly. I thought about it. I knew Peeta would never take advantage of me. And I did need to be cleaned. I was emanating a bloody smell and could barely stand myself. I was clearly in no shape to bathe myself in the river. "Yes, be careful." "Yes my queen." He smiled in his warm, Peeta sort of way. He poured clean water into a bowl and grabbed a rag. "I've got you some clean clothes too, your mother sent them, along with some antibiotic cream and lotion for the scars." "My mother saw that. Scars are the least of my worries." After Prim's death, my mother had worried even more about me. I shuddered at the thought of how scared she must have been, seeing me half dead like that. She must have thought Peeta was a hero. He was a hero. He was always my hero. Bailing me out of trouble, fixing boo boo's. It's a wonder that he wasn't gray by now. He helped me take off my blood soaked shirt.

Peeta P.O.V.

I had only dreamed of undressing Katniss Everdeen. And here I was, doing it with her permission. Except, she was in excruciating pain. Not exactly how I imagined it. I didn't want her in that lusty way anymore. I wanted to help her. To kiss her scars and make things better. I slipped the bloody shirt over her head and tried not to look at the smooth black bra she wore. It looked so wonderful on her pale skin. _Peeta Mellark. She is injured. Your such a jerk. _I scolded my manhood. _Dead puppies, dead puppies…._ Next I took off her high waisted black pants which revealed the worst of the injury. It sliced clean down her entire left side, like someone was trying to skin her. My stomach churned at the thought of someone dragging a knife slowly and precisely down her body. I suddenly wanted to kill everyone, and I ignored her matching black underwear. I took a clean rag and ran it down the wound. "So, why didn't you leave me, Peeta? You thought I was dead. Why didn't you give up and run? Save yourself." She asked. I couldn't imagine running away and leaving her lifeless body there. Why would she ask such a question? "I couldn't just leave you.." I choked on the words. I was tearing up. I dabbed more intently at the wound. "Why not? Someone could have killed you too." "I thought that if I sat there long enough, prayed hard enough, that you would be ok. Your wound would heal up in front of my very eyes and this whole thing would be over. And then a box fell out of the sky. It had surgical thread and a needle. And gauze. Something told me you weren't dead. I stitched you up and I still couldn't wake you up. For a few minutes, I did CPR. And then I really thought I lost you. But I couldn't leave you. If anything, I would have joined you. Katniss.. I don't know what I'd do without you." I stopped dabbing and looked into her deep brown eyes, which were wet with tears. She was going to cry. Was that not what she wanted to hear? Was I that pathetic? If anything, I thought she'd laugh in my face. But no, she was.. crying. She grabbed my face and kissed me. Kissed me hard. The next few minutes seemed like blur of tears and kisses as I gently climbed on top of her. It was clumsy in a virgin like way, but we made love. Didn't care about the cameras or Haymitch or anyone. Just us. Making love. In rhythym with each other until we reached a peak and came floating back down, I just held her. I had just filled her up like I did in my dreams. I snuggled her neck. "I love you Katniss."

Katniss P.O.V.

I lost my virginity that night. To Peeta Mellark in a dingy cave as he cleaned dried blood of my multiple stab wounds. We made love. And it was wonderful, I loved him. He loved me. He gave me something to live for. He cared for me, I could tell. They way he went about it, gently crawling on top of me. It was sweet, like he'd been waiting a while to do it. I snuggled into his chest after that and thought for a minute. "I love you too, Peeta." I kissed his cheek. "Do we ever have to leave this cave?" I asked. "Sadly, yes, my dear."


	3. Saving Them

Katniss P.O.V

2 Months Later…

Peeta still couldn't stand to look at my scars. We were keeping watch while the other bathed and he wouldn't look at me. At first I thought maybe he didn't want me anymore, that maybe he'd lost his mind like the other tributes and would turn around and kill me at a moment's notice. I trusted him though. I never gave a second thought to killing him, like I had with the tributes. I'd only killed 2 so far in the whole game and I have to admit, it felt good to know that I had lessened mine and Peeta's chances of dying by 2 times. I had only hoped Peeta would keep his sanity. I figured with the way that he stayed by my side earlier that he'd felt like he invested too much time in me to simply kill me. We'd made so much love in the past couple of months too. So much love flowed between us, not that I was sure where it lied. Did it lie in the desperation of our life and death situation? The sheer need of trustworthy companionship during this time?

Or did it come from a deep and festering, undying love for one another? One that had been repressed and shoved down over a period of years? I hoped it was the second one. I really did love him, I always had. I'm not sure if I loved him like I love him now, but I loved him. He was sweet to me, pure. Something that nobody had ever touched before me. Like a dove, before you shoot it down out of the sky. And then it lays there, bloodied by your hands only. What a sick way to look at love. Ha, I'd been trained to think sickly lately. It was all I could do. Think of blood and death and rotting. Think of protecting Peeta. My Peeta. And our baby inside me.

Peeta P.O.V.

I couldn't look at those scars. They made me sick everytime I caught a glimpse. They ravaged her body, in angry shades of red and purple. I would run my hands over them subconsciously at night and it would anger me. They were rough and slick, like they didn't even exist on the same soft supple skin as the rest of her body. She had been hurt, and I had been the cause of the ungodly marks on her precious being. I had been paranoid over her lately, watching her every move to make sure no one was around, stalking her like a lion stalks its prey. She'd been sick lately, throwing up and what not. I was concerned. Could she be…no. I'd pulled out almost every time. We couldn't raise a baby in this mess. In this chaos. She couldn't be pregnant, there was no way I could keep her and that baby safe. That baby, like it was official. She'd need medical care and ultra sounds and things to ensure a safe delivery. Things I couldn't give her. I'd give her everything I could and try my best to take care of her but if something went wrong, I don't know if I could forgive myself.

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Like it? Reviewwwww! I know it's short but it was getting late and I had a few things I wanted to include in the story before I forgot them.


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